


Whiplash

by ladyjax



Category: Misison: Impossible Fallout, Mission: Impossible (Movies)
Genre: AU, Dialogue, Dialogue Light, Gen, Yuletide, observation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-18
Updated: 2018-12-18
Packaged: 2019-09-22 02:14:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 1,793
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17051144
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ladyjax/pseuds/ladyjax
Summary: Ethan Hunt and August Walker - two sides of a coin.





	1. Assess the Situation - August

**Author's Note:**

  * For [blurhawaii](https://archiveofourown.org/users/blurhawaii/gifts).



> Written for blurhawaii.
> 
> This turned out a lot differently than I originally expected. It expanded on August and Ethan's meeting until the end. I hope you enjoy it.

August stared into the mirror and twitched his tie. His last raise he’d negotiated enough for a clothing allowance and it was granted. A bespoke suit that enabled him to move as he needed to was as much of an asset as a good gun.

Slipping into the jacket and then his great coat, he took one last look at himself. A polite fiction: August Walker, Company man through and through. Assassinations took skill but they also took the capacity to blend in to the crowd. He did that well and it had taken him far. He was Erica Sloane’s proverbial fist, poised to wreak havoc in his own special way.

Besides, his personal plans were falling into place better than he expected. But for Hunt’s misstep in Berlin, this would be taking much longer.

Ethan Hunt. Walker’s lips drew back in a snarl that made one of the sheep take a step or two to the side as he walked by. He immediately smoothed out his expression and made his way to through the hanger. There was no denying that the IMF had made significant intelligence gains over the years. Between Hunt, his tight team of fellow IMF agents,  and various allies and assets he pulled into his orbit, world shaking crises had been averted more than once. Chaos controlled. Wholesale suffering averted.

Suffering that mankind clearly needed in order to be made whole.

He caught up with Erica at the hangar doors. “That’s him,” Erica said, nodding towards the pair standing near the opening of the C-130.

“Not what I expected,” August replied, taking in the compact body clad in jeans and leather jacket. He’d read Ethan’s files including the ones that were supposed to be redacted. How easily he’d stepped back into the fold after every betrayal from those on high. What kind of man kept working for God and country when country and agency betrayed him multiple times? 

“What did you expect?” Erica asked drily as they walked towards the plane.

August smirked. “That he’d be a little taller.”

He stood back while Erica put a kink in Hunley’s plans, insisting on August’s presence on the mission. A plain seeming man at first glance, Hunt kept his eyes on him, falcon bright.

Hunt the scalpel. Hunt the fool.

August drew himself to his full height and willed stillness.  Everything would unfold as it would.


	2. The Lay of the Land - Ethan

Alan walked back to Ethan as Erica returned to her own man. “That was...interesting,” Ethan offered.. Hunley twitched his shoulder in his suit and nodded to Ethan.

“She wants your head on a platter,” Hunley stated.  “You’re taking Walker along. I’m assuming you know about him.”

Ethan’s eyebrow twitched. “To quote you, his reputation precedes him. If the look you’re giving me is any indication, I probably don’t know enough.”

“He’s a killer.”

“And just what is it you think that I do?”

Hunley rubbed his forehead. “What I think is that you usually get the job done and the one time you don’t, we get this. The mission is going to take off tomorrow. You and Walker are going to go over the plans tonight and I pray that it all goes off without a hitch.”

Ethan smiled slowly. “I can handle him.”

**  
“That is one pretty motherfucker.”

“What?”

Luther nodded over at where August stood reading one of the files that they had on John Lark. He’d shed the overcoat and suit jacket and rolled up his sleeves. Ethan cataloged the large hands and corded muscles of his forearms before letting his eyes skim higher until he reached the other man’s face. The strong jaw, the slight twitch of the muscles of his cheek. August was hating this downtime. Ethan could relate.

“I don’t know if I’d call him pretty. Rugged maybe.” 

And itching to kill, he thought. It was in every line of August’s body. He knew the type; subtlety was not a strong suit.

Luther’s snort stopped short of a full bellied laugh. “That fits. I’m gonna head out. You got everything you need from me?”

Ethan pursed his lips and shook his head.  “I’m good. I’ll see you later.”

August lifted his head as Ethan left Luther to pack up.  “I’m finished with this,” he said, holding up the file in his hand before handing it over.  Ethan had already read it several times and he was sure August had done the same. Putting the two of them in the same room was a bad idea but Ethan couldn’t afford to antagonize the other man.

“Any other insights you wanted to offer?”  Ethan asked. August shrugged.      
“Not particularly,”  he replied. “We get in, we get out.  Maybe bust a few heads along the way.”

Too easy, he wants the rise out of you.  “Only if heads need busting.”

August paused then inclined his head towards Ethan.  “You don’t like me.”

“I don’t know enough about you to like or dislike you.” The lie slipped off his tongue easily.  “Our mission is to secure John Lock and bring him in.” Ethan let his gaze slip over August’s body,  then looked up again to capture the other man’s eyes. “Think you’re up to it?”

Dark brown eyes narrowed.  “Always.”

“Good.”  Ethan caught up his jacket and headed toward the door.  “Then we shouldn’t have any problems.”


	3. Stay the Course - August

The bathroom stall is large enough for three.  

Ethan glared at August and gestured towards the scanner impatiently, incapable of saying anything lest the gentlemen on the other side of the door decide to press the issue of their occupancy more than they already are. 

August narrowed his eyes, his contempt for the IMF’s tricks evident in every line of his body.  How did you ever get this far?  He’d beat the answer out of Ethan if he had the time. From the HALO jump until this moment, everything about Ethan should be predictable and yet somehow it’s not. He’s not.  

As the mocking rendition of “La Vie en Rose” echos off the bathroom walls, both men await the moment when everything quiets then turn their attention back to business.

At least that was the idea.

Their mark is quick and he isn’t gentle.  He’s blown Ethan out the stall while August is nearly incapacitated by the shot to his throat.  Then it’s nothing but body blow after body blow amidst flying chunks of plaster and tile. 

The fight does reveal one thing: Ethan is as ruthless as August himself.  He can’t appreciate it as much as he’d like, what with getting his ass kicked six ways from Sunday.  And he feels every inch of the pain in his bones before the last shot that puts him on his back.


	4. Fortitude - Ethan

The glacier beneath his feet is unyielding and unchanging.  Only the ruined man in front of Ethan is the aberration.

John Lark.  August Walker.  Each a shade of a larger whole.  I may never know who he really is,  There is no time to find out any different.

What Ethan does have time for is the mission.  To finish it. 

“I’d call you old man but that would almost be a cliche,” August calls.  The burn on his face must hurt but he stays on his feet, the detonator just out of reach.

“How many times?”

“What?”

“You sold Sloane on me being the traitor because I’d been betrayed multiple times.”  Ethan spat blood and wiped his mouth with his gloved hand. “And yet here I am.” He took a step forward, gauging the distance.  “How many times for you?”

August’s self-deprecating laugh echoed across the ice.  “You think it’s that simple? You’ve read my words. This world needs humbling and neither you or I can stop it.”

“I can try.”

He’s on August quicker than the other man expected.  There’s none of the brutal efficiencies of their earlier encounters.  It’s just attrition.

Maybe in a different time and place their antagonism could have been a useful tool, honed and pointed in the right direction.  Each blow is Benji, Julia, Ilsa, Luther. The innocents in the camp. Those further away. All of them are the weight behind Ethan’s fists.

Ice and rock scrape against their bodies as they hurl over the cliff.  When he looks down, Ethan sees the bared teeth, the madness that lights August’s eyes.

It’s nothing for him to yank on the rope and send the devil hurling to his doom.


	5. Epilogue - Ethan

Ethan hated hospitals. Considering this one was run by the Agency, it was much better than your average facility. He could barely smell the antiseptic.

The walls were white on white, no color to break up the stark monotony.  The silver keypad on the wall to Ethan’s left was a glaring exception; a way to enter into the sterile room on the other side of the glass. 

Beneath the swath of head bandages and blankets pulled up to the chest was August, his burly frame overwhelmed by all the white.

Ethan bounced a little on the balls of his feet as he stared into that room, slowly counting down until the door at the far end of the hallway opened and then the click-click-click of sensible heels bounced off the walls.  The sound stopped as someone came to stand beside him.

“I shouldn’t be surprised that you found this place,” Erica Sloane said drily.  “You’re a man of many talents, Ethan.”

His eyes trained on the man in the bed, Ethan replied, “Luther were bored and happened to stumble on a notation in one of your after action reports.”

“Hmm.”  

“I’m actually surprised that he’s alive.”

Erica folded her arms across her chest. “So am I.”

They’d attended the unveiling of Hunley’s star; Erica had given the eulogy. Ethan stood at the back. Maybe a week later, Luther had tracked Ethan down and handed him a slip of paper. “You do what you gotta,” the big man said. “Call me if you need me.”

“What’s the prognosis?”

Erica sighed. “Brain damage, most likely. We’re not sure to what extent. He’s in a medically induced coma.” She turned to look at him. “With all of the evidence, you’re in the clear as are the rest of your associates in the most recent adventure.”

Ethan reached out and rested his hand on the glass. “Good to know.” His hand balled into a fist and he gently thumped the smooth surface before pulling away. 

As he started to walk away, Erica said quietly “I have to clean house. If you’re free, I’d like a hand.”

“Are you sure you trust me now?”

“I can keep an eye on you this way.”

He nodded curtly. “I’ll call you,” he replied and walked down the hallway.  
Behind him, August Walker was lost in dreams of fire.


End file.
